This is a continuation-in-part application from Ser. No. 515,346, filed July 19, 1983, now abandoned.
The present invention relates generally to comminuting apparatus, and more particularly to a novel comminuter apparatus which finds particular application in destroying documents by comminution such that the documents cannot be reconstructed in a legible form.
Apparatus or machines for shredding or otherwise destroying materials, such as confidential documents, drawings, financial statements and money transfer instruments and records, and other documents which have relatively confidential and/or high security information thereon, are generally known. Such apparatus find particular application in many governmental agencies and private business concerns where it is desirable for security and confidentiality purposes to regularly destroy the contents of waste baskets, archived or current files and publications, blueprints, etc., both bound and unbound, so that they cannot be reconstructed or their contents otherwise deciphered after undergoing passage through the document destroying apparatus. It will be appreciated that the higher the degree of classification or confidentiality in the material, the more important it is that the documents be thoroughly comminuted so as to preclude their reconstruction to a legible document.
The known comminuter apparatus exhibit a number of drawbacks and disadvantages which limit their usage with high-security documents and the like. A major drawback found in most known comminuter or document disintegrating apparatus is that while they are capable of shredding the material so as to make it a tedious task to reconstruct the documents in a legible manner, they do not preclude the reconstruction process altogether. This has proven to be a major drawback where the documents are highly sensitive and disclose matters involving, for example, national security.
Another significant drawback in the known document destroying or comminuter apparatus is that they generally require sequential handfeeding of individual documents or relatively small quantities thereof into the apparatus, thereby making such apparatus relatively slow and cumbersome where substantial quantities of documents, such as large volumes of cancelled checks and/or other financial records as generally retained by banking institutions, must be destroyed, or where smaller volumes of high security documents must be totally destroyed very quickly.
A further drawback in the known document destroying apparatus is that while they may be sturdy enough to withstand continued operation when paper-type objects or documents are inserted for comminution, they are incapable of receiving and comminuting objects other than paper-type products without adversely affecting the apparatus.